Staphylococci Pyogenes Aureus et Albus 347 



of alcohol upon staphylococci, prepared an acicular crystal- 

 line body soluble in alcohol and ether, but slightly soluble 

 in water, to which he gave the name phlogosin. 



Mannatti found that pus has substantially the same toxic 

 properties as sterilized cultures of the staphylococcus ; that 

 repeated injections of sterilized pus induce chronic in- 

 toxication and marasmus; that injection of sterilized pus 

 under the skin causes a grave form of poisoning ; and that 

 the symptoms and pathologic lesions caused by these 

 injections correspond with those observed in men suffering 

 from chronic suppuration. 



Van de Velde* found that the staphylococcus has some 

 metabolic products destructive to the leukocytes, which 

 he has called leukocidin. This poison causes the cells to 

 cease ameboid movement, become spheric, and gradually 

 to lose their granules, until they finally appear like empty 

 sacs containing shadow nuclei, which eventually disappear. 

 The leukolysis occurs in about two minutes. These ob- 

 servations have been abundantly confirmed. Kraussf first 

 observed that certain products of the staphylococcus were 

 hemolytic and destroyed red blood-corpuscles. This hemo- 

 lysin has been carefully studied by Neisser and Wechsberg, J 

 by whom it was called staphylolysin. 



Durme found staphylolysin produced most abundantly 

 by virulent staphylococci. 



Ribbertll found that both sterilized and unsterilized cul- 

 tures when intravenously injected into animals produced 

 definite changes in the heart, kidneys, lungs, spleen, and 

 bone-marrow, and attributed the action to the toxin. 



Morse** found that the toxic products of Staphylococcus 

 aureus were capable of occasioning interstitial nephritis. 



The staphylococci form very little extracellular toxin, as 

 filtered cultures provoke little local or general reaction in 

 animals, even when the staphylococcus is highly virulent. 



Pathogenesis. The virulent, golden staphylococcus is 

 a dangerous and often deadly organism. Its virulence is, 



"La Cellule," xi, 1896, p. 349. 

 t "Wiener, klin. Wochenschrift," 1900. 

 | "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," 1911, xxxvi, p. 330. 

 "Hyg. Rundschau," 1903, Heft 2, p. 66. 



|| "Die pathologische Anatomie und die Heilung der durch den 

 Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus hervorgerufenen Erkrankungen." 

 ** "Journal of Experimental Medicine," vol. I, 1896, p. 613. 



